We've had a few posts about jumping off stuff, what about climbing up it? Like Rock Climbing.

You can rock climb natural formations or manmade ones and the goal is to reach the summit or the end point. Although it sounds simple enough there various types of climbing and there is a lot that goes into rock climbing including the different techniques and specialized equipment.

Types of Climbing:

*Bouldering addicts climb short jumbles of rock, often only a couple of feet high. The key here is linking the moves: because of their short height bouldering problems tend to be fairly intense and technical.

*Free Climbing is the art of climbing a rock without using your equipment for upward motion. You can only use your arms, hands and other essential body parts to climb

*Indoor climbing or climbing on plastic is where most competitions are nowadays. Indoor gyms are excellent places to learn rope handling techniques and to work on the basic moves.

*Traditional Climbing, climbers use their own gear for protection whereas in free climbing pre-drilled bolts are clipped with carabiners. Trad climbers use friends, chocks, stoppers and other passive and active gear instead. This is for advanced climbers.

*Aid Climbing pulling on gear is the only way to get up. This kind of climbing involves staying on the rock for several days (Climbs called Big Walls.) and handling massive amounts of gear. It requires an extreme level of technical expertise and a certain sense for logistics.

*Solo Climbing is the most dangerous game and for the truly skilled only. You're climbing without any kind of protection, falling is simply not an option.

*Ice Climbers use ice axes to move up frozen waterfalls

* Mountain climbing involves living on ice covered slopes for several days at the mercy of the weather, avalanches and more.

Rope Techniques:

* Top-roping, an anchor is set up at the summit of a route prior to the start of a climb. Rope is run through the anchor; one end attaches to the climber and the other to the belayer, who keeps the rope taut during the climb and prevents long falls.

*Lead climbing, one person, called the "leader", will climb from the ground up with rope directly attached (and not through a top anchor) while the other, called the "second", belays the leader.

There is also special gear including shoes, helmets, rope, carabiners, harnesses etc. Boulder climbing and indoor climbing is the best for beginners and although it is not difficult to advance in your climbing, don't expect to be Tom Cruise from Mission Impossible anytime soon.